One of my favorite yet most difficult things about blogging is social media — specifically Twitter. I love Twitter. I love the conversations I always get to have. How it really helps me to get to know other bloggers and them to get to know me. I love how it continues the conversations off our blogs. I just LOVE always having a place to go when I want to talk or ask a question. I’ve gotten closer with some of my now bffs BECAUSE of Twitter. Blog-wise, it’s a source of a good amount of traffic.

However, I have a hard time balancing the social media aspect of my blog sometimes. I want to be present. I want to talk and get to know people. I want to be a part of the community. At this point, though, I’m addicted to Twitter. I’m always refreshing it on my phone and always have Tweetdeck open on my computer. The result has been a plummeting level of productivity. Like, really really badly. I’m reading way less and being less efficient as I write my blog posts. It’s become a problem that I’ve been trying to tackle. I’ve started not really going on Twitter during the weekends and shutting down later at night as well as close Tweetdeck when I work on my blog posts. But I need to do more.

What is it that I am going to do to try and help myself get back to a good balance regarding social media?

I’m going on a social media diet for a week — so I guess sort of like a crash diet really?

For 1 week I will be limiting myself to 1 hour per day on Twitter — split however I choose. I’ll be keeping very close track of every single minute because they add up — I KNOW they do when I’m jumping on Twitter to refresh every 15-20 minutes and spend 5 minutes on there.

Why am I doing this/what do I hope to accomplish?

– Become more aware of the mindless Twitter refreshing and just how much time I’m really wasting (not talking about good conversation – just the refreshing and not talking or following drama that I don’t participate in.)

– To combat my Twitter refreshing tick on my phone

– To see how productive I can really be and hope that I’ll want that to be the norm.

– Remember that the world will probably not implode if I don’t answer right away or participate in every conversation.

– Get some “quiet” time — sometimes honestly having SO many opinions or seeing a lot of negativity really effects me and I need to step away.

– Ultimately I want to help myself to regain a good balance and realize how much time I waste and rather focus on quality conversation while I’m on Twitter.

Fears I have about doing this:

– That I will be so disconnected
– That I’ll miss out on good, fun conversations
– People will forget I exist
– That I’ll fail in the first day and forever be addicted to Twitter and my life will fall apart (I’m being REALLY dramatic here hah)

What do I plan to do during this week?

– get blog posts written for when I’ll be in BEA and maybe get further ahead
– do all the annoying behind the scenes things I hate doing (review archive updating, putting reviews on Goodreads, formatting old posts I still haven’t fixed from when I moved to WordPress in March 2012). That was one of my bookish resolutions for this year so I need to get crackin’ on that!
– clean the house
– indulge in some of my other hobbies
– get ready for BEA!!
– comment on blog posts!!
– Work on my super secret project that I referenced here.
– READ READ READ (that’s what always gets the short end of the stick because of my Twitter addiction…which is ironic because the only reason I’m on Twitter is because of my BOOK BLOG)

So what happens after the week?

Every day I plan on writing just a paragraph each day of what I got done for the day, how I feel and what not and then I’ll take that and really evaluate and see how much more I got done and how my general mood is after the week. I’m hoping that it will help me to realize I don’t need to be on as much and help strike a better balance in my social media usage for the blog. I know I’ll still probably be on a lot because I truly enjoy it but hopefully not as much! I’ll probably end up sharing the results of my little experiment. I also will probably be evaluating the other areas where I mindlessly waste time on Twitter.

What about you guys? Do you find yourself addicted to social media? How do you strike a balance? All tips will be welcome! Also, feel free to join me!!

First Cool Thing: I got the coolest email from a reader of my blog with a picture attached. Seriously made my day forever and ever and ever. Kelley, you rock and I am so thankful for teachers like you that are so passionate and think outside the box!

“Subject line: Thanks for the inspiration.

I have been following your blog for a while now and really enjoy your post-it note reviews. On the spur of the moment today I decided to have my students in two classes write post-it note reviews for Macbeth and then if they wanted to write another (or several) for extra credit they could. What I envisioned to be a 10 minute exercise turned in to a whole class period. The picture is poor quality but it does show how much they got into this idea. They asked if we could keep this up and see how much of the room can by covered by the end of May. I am going to have to find some stickier post-its.”

Moral of the story: Never, ever underestimate yourself. You are contributing to life in ways you don’t even realize. And never EVER underestimate the power of taking the time out of your day to thank someone or tell them how they’ve inspired you or encouraged you. Sometimes people don’t know and it will make their day.

Second Cool Thing:

This here blog has been nominated for Best Overall Blog and Most Creative Blog as part of an online conference for book bloggers. I’m so humbled and honored that someone thought about my blog enough to take the time to fill out the form with my name. I don’t in any way think I’m the best blog EVER (let’s be real — my reviews are not eloquent, I write about my butt and not throwing up in the car while reading and do silly things like dates inspired by books or show you what a neurotic crazypants I am) but I do try to always be authentically myself and bring creative things to the table. I’ve been feeling creatively stifled lately so this made my day. VOTING is open now and the links to the two awards will bring you to the awards where it literally only takes ONE click to vote. There are so many other worthy nominations but if you feel like this blog fits the bill for you…I’d so appreciate your nod of support. Also Top Ten Tuesday (the meme I created at my other blog The Broke and the Bookish was nominated too for Best Meme!)

So I have this friend name Carla. You might know her from her previous blog, The Crooked Shelf, or as Jen’s co-blogger over at Makeshift Bookmark.

Anna, Carla & I

Two years ago at BEA Anna, Carla & I were exhausted & found somewhere to sit down and rest our feet while we waited to meet up with other bloggers. We talked books and then Carla wrote me a list of books I MUST read (mostly because she was shocked that I hadn’t read some YA contemp staples — hey I’m a relatively new YA groupie). I had lost the list but had remembered a few of the titles and have been working on them since then. BUT RECENTLY I have found the list in a random notebook!

So while other people might be reading from the “1001 Best Books To Read Before You Die” or some other book list out there — I’m reading & checking off this list from Carla! It’s crazy how I’ve adored & loved every book I’ve read off her list so naturally I’m even more excited to tackle the rest of them now that I have found the rest! Carla is definitely one of my go-to people in terms of book recommendations because I’ve realized we have pretty similar tastes for the most part! So if Carla raves about a book, I’m DEFINITELY adding it to my TBR list. I have a few other bloggers friends like that whose recommendations I trust implicitly and Carla is for sure at the top of the list!

I’d highly recommend if you love a lot of the books on her list, read the others!

So, more importantly, let’s talk!

Have you read any of these books on this list? Which ones should I move up in priority? Do you have anybody whose recommendations you ALWAYS trust? Are there any book lists you have read off of? If you were to write me a list of some of your MUST reads/all time favorites for me what would be on the top of it?